Chapter 13
Chapter.TakingaStand:The Habitus of Agitprop
Aproletarianwhose facial expressions conveysubmission and resignation makes for an
embarrassingand shameful sight.Bycontrast,inthe gestures of protest,hecomes across
as appealing,inspiring, heroic even. And because the importanceofsettinganexample, of
encouragingthroughsuggestion, must not be underestimated, the rebellious proletarian is
without doubt not onlymorelikeable and morebeautiful but also morevaluable to the
class struggle than the proletarianwhohas turned bourgeois.OttoRühle,Illustrierte Kultur- und Sittengeschichte des ProletariatsProletarian identifications allowed individualsto imagine themselvesaspart of
the collectivities visualized by the Cologne Progressives (of chapter 11) and per-
formedbytheSprechchormovement (of chapter 12). As previous chapters have
shown, the interpellation of the revolutionary workingclass dependedonthe
constitutive tension between figuration and abstraction that channeled anger
and indignation into highlyformalized–which also means, highlypoliticized–
terms.For communist artists and writers,especiallythose affiliated with the
KPD,the declaredgoal wasto transformphysical bodies into classed bodies:
by identifying antagonists and obstacles, by modeling the process ofmoving
and feeling as one, and by expressing the various stages of transformation
through specific emotions.
Giventhe importance attributed to the right (and wrong) ways of standing in
these paradigmatic scenes of political mobilization, takingavery literal ap-
proachto the making of communist bodies might proveuseful and productive.
In reconstructing the proletarian dream through its emotional regimes, this
time through the lens of embodied emotions, this chapter draw on threevery dif-
ferent artistic practices and examines in what ways the act of standing becomes
apublic performance of political habitus. The argument is developedthrough the
representation of the agitator in paintingsbyCurt Querner,Magnus Zeller,and
Käthe Kollwitz and continues with the equation of class consciousness with mas-
culinity in two solo dance pieces byJean Weidt andJo Mihaly. The instructions
on the right ways of standing (and speaking) by the agitprop troupe Das rote
Sprachrohr (TheRed Megaphone) extend the conception of embodied emotions
towardthe relationship between bodyand voice and its implications for the ar-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110550863-017